Hugh Hefner: Legendary Playboy Enterprise

Hugh Hefner is the founder of the legendary Playboy Enterprise. He started this magazine company at the young age of 27 years old during 1953. Magazines back in those days valued men who were aloof, outdoorsy, and a breadwinner. Hefner felt like he was trapped by conformity and decided to design a magazine that promoted a very different idea of what a man was through advice on clothing, food, alcohol, selections, art, music, and literature. He pushed the social and sexual values of that time through his Playboy Enterprise which change the American cultures view on these values this for the rest of time. Hugh Hefner was born during the Prohibition era in Chicago, Illinois on April 9, 1926. He was the eldest son of Grace Caroline a teacher,

He is a direct descendant of distinguished Massachusetts Puritan Patriarchs. Hefner attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School on the West Side of Chicago. While he was at Steinmetz High School, Hefner became president of the student council and founded the school newspaper. After graduating from High School, Hugh enlisted in the U.S Army out of Chicago, Illinois. Hefner arrived at Fort Sheridan, Illinois in June 1944, and was moved to Fort Hood, Texas, where he would do basic training. Hefner was described by Steven Watts as a “fair soldier,” earning a Sharpshooter Badge on the range with his M1 Garand. When Hugh graduated from what he called it “Killer College,” he learned an extensive understanding of infantry combat and some anti-tank tactics under his belt. But because of Hefner’s typing skills, he was assigned to the “Chairborne Infantry,” getting a desk job as a clerk in S-1 and writing for the Army newspaper. It was here when Hefner’s creative vision was really blooming. He drew numerous cartoons for the Army newspapers and wrote a satirical song titled “I’d Make a Hell of a Good Civilian,” that his company sang and marched to. While in the Army, Hugh

He changed the American society attitudes about sex and a steadily more candid view of sexuality. Hefner fought the right winged people, the moral majority, and the part of the Puritan ethic that condemned pleasure. Playboy latched on to a generation of young men, and let them see what the good life was like. Depicted in his magazines, articles showed young men how to buy a sports car, what kind of hi-fi set to buy, how to order in a restaurant, what kind of wine to drink with that kind of meal, Playboy told you how to do all these things that only the wealthy knew. Hefner said his magazines “helped the world to discover toys. He said ‘play, it’s okay to play.’” Ordinary Americans could afford to live better than ever, and now they want those nice toys that only the rich and famous could buy. They wanted the personal freedoms the rich enjoyed too. Hefner wanted you to celebrate your life, free your life up, and free your sexuality too. He preached pleasure, and touched the right generation at the right time for a social and sexual revolution. That revolution Hugh Hefner started changed the way America viewed these cultural views for the rest of